20 Responses to “Peculiarities Of Soviet Mentality”

“If a Soviet person returns home without taking something from the factory he/she works at, the day went to waste.” Haha, there was a saying here (supposedly dating back to the dark 70s), which went like “He who does not steal from the state, steals from his family”. Some 5 yrs ago, I was cleaning a weekend house owned by my wife´s deceased stepfather, who used to be a plumber then. What I found in the garage were crates full of brand new fittings, taps etc. he stole from the factory, which were absoulutely useless for a household (2″ Ts etc.). They were only worth the price of scrap metal (some 300 kgs) due to their tragically low, truly “communist” quality.

Communist mentality is to drink and smoke and be suspicious of others who don’t.

Capitalist mentality is to never take time off from work and be suspicious of those who do. Paid vacation is a trap to catch lazy people who take it and make their coworkers do double duty for a week. They must be shunned.

The above undesirable elements of Soviet social life were brought to you by J. Stalin and his 25 year rule of ruin and thinly-disguised monarchy. And just when things were improving in the late 50s and early 60s Leo Brezhnev and his sycophants brought neo-stalinism and stagnation to trample people’s hopes.

This is the portrait of Leo Brezhnev, who reversed back all the Stalin’s regime achievements. Stalin had never worn any insignia, had never acquired any ​​values for himself, but for the Soviet people. Brezhnev’s descendants have a great possessions overseas unlike the Stalin’s ones.

What a horrible society this describes. I grew up during the Cold War and was told much about life behind the Iron Curtain, but this intimate look at the daily grind these poor people had to endure is just awful. It’s even worse to think that there are many in the West still who would take us to such paradise with their socialist/green ideology.

Well, I certainly don’t believe in laws and politics and do believe in stealing whatever I can get away with.

That said, I’m not sure if this is typical of Soviet people at every period in time. The last two decades tainted a lot. The two decades after that were even worse for those whose hearts and minds were still Soviet; you either stuck to your guns and starved in a metro somewhere because you couldn’t stomach the thought of using your economics degree for selfish gain (true story as far as I could tell, though it didn’t happen to me) or you became the worst of both worlds, mostly.

None of these are true. I am Russian and grew up in Soviet Russia, and I can say that these are all stereotypes which are very wrong. Don’t believe them. I may actually will have to report this site for racist or some like this tendency. This is outrageously offensive. Shame on you. Soviet people worked harder than any people on the planet.